


In the Spider's web

by Airaneae



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Angst, Death, Violence, War, Will add tags as I go, i'll add characters as i go - Freeform, maybe fluff later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:15:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22133908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airaneae/pseuds/Airaneae
Summary: This story takes place just before the war broke out on Cybertron. It's about two young Spider-bots, Airachnid and her even younger sister, Airaneae, who live on the streets of Kaon, fighting for survival like thousands of other bots. In this cruel and unfair world, Airachnid tries her best to keep her sister safe. (I also posted this story on fanfiction.net)
Kudos: 3





	1. Close call

It was supposed to be simple, easy even, yet they just had to mess it up, didn't they? Nothing could ever go right, could it? It just had to be difficult, nothing could ever be that easy, could it?

Airachnid grimaced as she pushed through the huge crowd of bots, dragging her sister by her arm as she kept looking back nervously.

They were on the run. Why, you might ask? They had stolen energon and, like the idiots they were, had been caught during the act. By a Gang. Great. As if getting caught alone wasn't bad enough already. But what other choice did they have? Here, you had no other choice but to steal from each other to survive.

Airachnid slowed down a little and looked at her sister, who was shaking in fright, the cube of energon she once held nowhere to be seen. She must've dropped it at some point in their haste to get away.

„Airaneae?" Airachnid placed both of her hands on her sisters shoulders. „Look at me." Slowly, the younger bot looked at her with a frightened gaze, as if she expected someone to hurt her, wich really wasn't far off from the truth, if you thought about it. People here killed to survive.

„We're going to be okay, you hear me?" Her sister nodded and seemed to calm down a little at hearing her sister's voice. She still looked shaken up though and Airachnid noticed the bots who were chasing them were now closer, almost too close for comfort.

„Come on, let's go." And they were running again, wich apparently caused one of their pursuers to notice them. Airachnid cursed as she heard him immediately inform his colleagues about his discovery.

„We need to get to the buildings!" Airachnid urgently told her sister. If they managed to get to higher ground they'd be safe. Spider-bots had light frames and were excellent climbers where as grounders had heavier and bulkier frames, wich weren't really suited for climbing, at least not enough to be able to keep up with them.

Airaneae nodded, looking a little bit relieved now that she knew they'd have a chance to get out of this situation. They steered off towards the buildings, once again having to push through the huge crowds on the streets.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternety, they reached the buildings they so desperately wanted to get to. Their relief was short-lived though, as suddenly a strong hand grabbed Airaneae's upper arm and pulled her against a large bot. The young bot cried out in alarm and Airachnid's eyes went wide in shock and fear. She'd barely be able to fight off one bot, let alone a whole group, but she would try her very damn best, because no-one laid hands on her sister without consequences.

The spider-bot thrust her hand forward, shooting a web at the optics of Airaneae's captor, who yelped in shock and momentarily let go of the younger. Airaneae took her chance immediately to dart forward towards her sister, towards safety.

Both siblings wasted no time as they climbed the walls of the building, their many legs aiding them in their escape. Once they reached the top, they switched to another building to loose their pursuers.

They settled down on a roof after a few minutes, although Airachnid was still on high alert, never once feeling calm enough to not constantly check her surroundings. After all, one couldn't be too careful, lest they end up in the hands of some gang lurking in the valleys.

Once the purple femme deemed it safe enough, she directed her attention towards her sister, who had calmed down a little once she knew that they were safe, at least, as safe as living on streets could be. Richer bots had no problem with that, they all lived in their fine apartments with their fine high-grade energon and lived a happy life, unlike them. They didn't need to work, that was a job for lesser bots after all, for their own personal slaves.

It's so unfair, Airachnid thought, they have everything and we live in the dirt.

Even if she tried, she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Who would listen to someone who lived on the streets? They'd probably laugh and send her on her way, then soon forget about her and continue their happy lifes.

Dismissing her thoughts briefly, she placed a hand on her sister's shoulder, who looked up at her with a small smile.

„Are you okay?" Airachnid asked softly, checking for any visisble wounds on her sister's thin frame, but luckily found none other than a few small scuffs here and there. While there may have been no fatal wounds, Airachnid noticed something else entirely. Her sister was dirty, her small green and golden frame covered in dust and grime, not too much unlike her own. That's what living on the streets was like. Oh, how desperately she wished she could change it.

Her sister shouldn't live like this, she thought grimly, nobody should, yet she couldn't change anything about it. Her sister was so young, not even fully a youngling and yet they both had to live on the streets.

„I'm fine… i think." Airaneae finally said, although she looked a little bit unsure, scared even. It had been a close call, after all.

„I'm sorry i lost the energon." she added, wringing her hands guiltily.

„It's fine, i still got some." Airachnid said, wrapping an arm around her sister's shoulders comfortingly.

Airachnid scolded herself mentally, she should've been more careful. She should have taken better care of her sister, make sure she didn't get captured in the first place. What if the other gang members had caught up to them? What would they have done to her sister, had she not managed to free her in time?

Airachnid shuddered at the images that filled her head and unconsciously tightened her hand on her sister's shoulder. Airaneae looked up at her sister with a confused, yet worried gaze.

„Are… are you okay?" She asked in a small, quiet voice, almost as if she were afraid that if she spoke too loudly, her sister might run.

„I'm fine, don't worry." Airachnid assured the smaller bot with a smile, and was glad when her sister looked more at ease. They shouldn't have to worry when they managed to get their next energon. They also shouldn't have to worry if they made it another day, yet they did.

„Hey, Airachnid…?" the smaller spider-bot asked, looking at her hopefully. „Can we maybe visit Striker again?" she continued.

Airachnid smiled. „Tomorrow, okay? It's already getting dark." She said, watching the twin suns of Cybertron slowly dissappear beyond the horizon.

„Okay." She grinned and leaned against her sister's side, her optics already beginning to fall shut as it got darker. Airachnid continued to watch as both suns vanished completely from view and the first twinkling stars lit up the sky. Slowly and carefully, she lowered her sister onto the ground and settled down next to her, enveloping her sister into her arms as she, too, went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yay, my first chapter and i can't stop shaking from excitement and nervousness. Please let me know what you guys think. :D
> 
> Btw, if you wanna know where i got the name Airaneae for my oc, i googled „spider types" and one type was ‚Araneae'. I added the ‚i' because of ‚Air' and i wanted her to transform into a helicopter (wich happens much, much later in the story), so yeah, that's why her name is Airaneae. :D
> 
> Also, if you‘d like to see a picture of her, here is a link to my DeviantArt account, on wich i published a picture of her.
> 
> https://www.deviantart.com/airaneae/art/My-oc-Airaneae-Transformers-Prime-823928357


	2. Visiting a friend

The next morning when they woke up, it was to the sounds of cheering from a few blocks away. When Airachnid finally opened her eyes she saw that Airaneae was crouching at the edge of the roof, curiously looking in the direction where the cheering came from.

Airachnid joined her sister at the edge, still a little bit tired but determined to find out what caused the commotion. She already had a vague idea of what, or rather, who it could be.

Airaneae seemed to have the exact same thoughts as she suddenly jumped up, looking ready to leap off of the edge as she excitedly said, „Do you think it's Megatronus?!"

The older femme almost laughed at the overjoyed expression on her sister's face. Airaneae had heard about the famous gladiator a few weeks ago and couldn't stop talking about him ever since. She always told Airachnid about the gladiator's plans of revoloution and that he wanted equality for everyone, so no-one would ever have to live on streets anymore.

Airachnid never really thought that Megatronus would be able to make a change, but he seemed to have a huge impact on the citizens of Kaon, almost everyone knew who he was and what his intentions were. She never voiced her thoughts aloud because it was better for Airaneae to have something to hope for, it made life on the streets a little bit easier if your thoughts weren't constantly filled with negative things.

„Come on, let's go! We already missed him last time he held a speech, i don't want to miss this one too!" The smaller bot was jumping around on the roof excitedly, a huge grin on her face as she looked at Airachnid expectantly.

„What about visiting Striker, hmm?" The older bot teased with a smug smile on her lips.

Suddenly, Airaneae stopped jumping and pondered for a few moments, looking puzzled, as if she only now realized that they had originally planned to visit their friend.

„Well, yes… but, Megatronus…" She trailed off, fidgeting on the spot while glancing in the direction where the huge crowd and the gladiator would be.

„Hah, it's okay, we can still visit Striker later. I'm sure he can wait another hour." Airachnid assured her sister, smiling once again as Airaneae grinned widely.

Airachnid gathered the energon cube's they managed to get the day prior and both of them climbed down from the building, since the next building would've been too far away to get onto, and the others went in the exact opposite direction they wanted to get to.

The purple spider-bot hid the cubes in her arms as best as she could and luckily nobody payed too much attention to them, most bot's attention were caught on the loud, cheering crowd that was now not more than two blocks away.

Airachnid chuckled as she saw her sister skipping ahead a little. She had to call her back every once and then so they wouldn't loose each other because in a crowd this huge, it would be nearly impossible to find someone again.

At some point, Airachnid convinced her sister, after much complaining, to go back a little bit, because there were a couple of buildings close to each other, so they could watch the whole event comfortable from there.

Once they were on their choosen spot, Airaneae eagerly scanned the area, looking for her personal hero. Airachnid had to, once again, stop herself from laughing at how ridicioulus her sister looked while looking for Megatronus. At some point, she couldn't hold back her laughter anymore, wich, apparently, her sister didn't find that amusing.

After Airachnid had calmed down, Airaneae had resumed her task of looking for the gladiator, although she stopped looking a few minutes later, a disapointed look on her young face.

„Hey, what's wrong?" Airachnid asked her sister, concerned as to why her sister was suddenly so sad. Usually, Airaneae was always beaming with happines, especially when she told her sister about things she'd discovered or when talking about Megatronus.

„He's not here…" Airaneae huffed, her eyes flicking to the crowd once more, wich was slowly but surely dissolving.

„I think he was here…just, maybe we missed him?" Megatronus was obviously gone, Airachnid noted, that's why the people began to leave again. If he was still here, then surely the crowd would grow, not shrink.

„C'mon, let's go, you said you wanted to visit Striker, right?" She said, trying to lighten the mood a little, wich seemed to work perfectly as Airaneae smiled brightly again.

„Okay." She hummed happily, and so they made their way to their friend, Striker. They came across him a few weeks ago, when they were scavenging for remaining energon cubes. Airachnid had noticed some energon coming from an old, wrecked building, on the outskirts oft he city. They went to investigate and found him lying in the corner of a room.

He had a large wound across his abdominal plating, where the energon was coming from. Airaneae had immediately pressed herself closer to her sister's side at the sight, scared that the one's who hurt the bot might be still around. Airachnid had closed the wound with webs as best as she could, to prevent further energon from leaking out.

Striker had thanked them, then procceded to tell them how he got the wound, making Airaneae cringe throughout the whole story. At the end of the story, the spider-bot looked about ready to throw up.

Airachnid shook her head in amusement about how they met and promptly noticed that they were almost there. She could already see the wreck of a building in wich Striker lived. Airaneae picked up the pace and her sister followed suit and they finally reached their friend.

„Hello, Striker! How are you?" The young bot called as she entered the building, heading toward the room she knew Striker was in. The old bot jolted, having probably slept as the two spider-bots entered his home.

„Wha- who is there?!" He barked, momentarily disorientadet before he realized who stood before him. He had to squint a little, since his opticts weren't functioning properly, but he recognized the two femmes nonetheless.

„Ah, you two, nice ta see ya again. Where have ya been, already forget about me?" He said and promptly coughed afterwards. Airaneae kneeled down next to him, while Airachnid stood guard at the door, making sure no-one could sneak up on them.

„I'm sorry we didn't visit sooner, i promise we'll visit you more often." Airaneae explained, smiling apologetically. Suddenly, her head perked up and she looked at her sister.

„Airachnid, do we still have enough energon to share?" She asked the other spider-bot, hoping they still had some energon cubes, since she dropped hers on their last, not-so-succesfull raid.

Airachnid took a look at what they still had. Only two and a half cubes, that was barely enough for both of them, much less for three bots. With a sigh, she handed her sister both full cubes and took the half-full one for herself. Airaneae smiled gratefully and handed one to Striker, making sure he didn't drop it with his shaking hands.

As she drank, the older sibling noted that an infecton had started spreading from the old mech's wound, his plating starting rust and crumble. He probably wouldn't last much longer. Once again, she wished she could do something, but she had not medical skills whatsoever and they couldn't ever hope to afford a medic.

The younger spider-bot chatted with Striker for a while before Airachnid decided they should get home. She had seen a group of not-so-friendly looking mechs pass a few minutes ago, luckily not noticing her. They bid their goodbyes to Striker before silently creeping out of the building, hiding in the shadows beside the wreckage, looking out for any gangs that might be waiting for them.

Airachnid smiled as she looked behind her and just barely saw her sister, who had decided to use her great hiding abilities to blend in with the shadows. She had changed her green and golden colours to a duller, lifeless grey, the only thing giving her away were her bright red optics.

Some minutes passed before they dared to come out of the shadows. They swiftly made their way up a building and looked for a place that was safe enough for them to stay the night that was quickly approaching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of chapter two
> 
> A/N: Hey, i'm really motivated to write currently, so i was able to write another chapter, as you can see. Your opinions, thoughts, etc. are welcome.
> 
> Bye! :D


	3. Why are they doing this?

It was already dark before they managed to get home, wich wasn't good. Lots of gang activity increased by night so they had to really careful, constantly watching where they were going. They had taken a different path home, since soldiers were guarding some of the roofs wich they usually came by. Why there were even guards in the first place, they didn't know.

Their current path home was a lot more dangerous than Airachnid anticipated. They had to travel mostly on the ground, since lots of buildings were wrecked. Once they'd get closer to the center of Kaon they would be able to travel per buildings once again. The closer you came to the city's center, the better the buildings were taken care of. That was were the richer bots and the council lived.

Of course, even then you had to be extremely careful. Lot's of the people who lived there had personal guards who wouldn't hesitate to kill you if you accidently came upon the wrong roof. So, they settled down a little bit further away from that part of the city, but didn't dare to sleep just yet. There was just something off about this night, something just didn't seem right. Airachnid and Airaneae had been watching the streets from their position for quite a while and had noticed more guards roaming the streets, some heavily armed.

Airachnid frowned heavily. It was unusual for so many soldiers to be around, much less so heavily armed. Something was definately going on, if only she knew what. She noticed that some of them were going in and out of buildings, as if they were looking for something…

Or someone, Airachnid thought. What if they were looking for Megatronus? It could be possible, he was, after all, a big threat to the council, with how many bots following him. He made his plans very clear, intending to overthrow the council to bring back the true Golden Age.

Although she wondered why they were taking so long. Not that she supported it, but it was just strange. Maybe she was completely

„Airachnid, do you think it's safe here?" The bot in question turned around to look at her sister, who looked really worried.

„Wait, do you mean this building we're on? We can go somewhere else if-„

„No, not just this building, I mean Kaon. Is it really safe here? Well, i know it isn't but…" The younger bot trailed off, struggling how to say what she meant. Airachnid noticed her inner turmoil and laid an arm across her sister's shoulders, pulling her close.

„Hey, it's okay-„ She was cut off by a scream piercing the air. Her sister yelped and wrapped her arms around the older bot's waist tightly, looking around with wide, fearful eyes.

„What was that?" The green bot asked, her voice slightly muffled behind her sister's arm. Airachnid managed to untangle herself from her sister so she could stand and look over the edge carefully. She almost groaned in annoyance as Airaneae wrapped a servo around her's, but what she saw beneath them made her only grip back tightly.

Down there they saw soldiers dragging younglings and sparklings alike out of their homes, their parents being pushed or shoved away forcefully as they tried to reach their young. One bot in particular had covered her sparkling with her frame as best as she could. Two soldiers approached her and pried the sparkling from her arms, the mother wailing and screaming, trying in vain to get to her sparkling back.

One soldier shoved the femme to the ground and kicked her a few times, then aimed his gun at the crying bot and shot, once, in her helm. Instantly, the screaming of the mother stopped, but that of her sparkling and younglings increased noticeably.

Airaneae choked back a scream of fear as she watched, horiffied, what had just occured. She was shaking so bad that probably the only reason she hadn't fallen over was the servo intertwined with hers. Airachnid stepped back from the edge with her sister and helped her sit down in the middle of the roof.

AIraneae was crying, arms wrapped around her shaking from and helm buried behind her knees. Although Airachnid wanted to do nothing more than to hold her sister close and comfort her, she went back to the edge insead, watching with fear and disgust as the young bots were being taken away.

More were being brought out by other soldiers, the younglings and sparklings crying in distress as they were torn away from their family. Once the soldiers were finished taking the children from the surrounding area, they made their way back towards the centers oft he city. Many bots had attempted to take the children from them and back to their families, but those who tried were shot almost instantly. No one had tried to stop them after that.

Airachnid had gone back to comfort her sister, who had almost completely dissappeared in the blackness of the night, the usually bright green now a dull grey. Airaneae had even shut her eyes to make herself as unnoticable as possible. However, when Airachnid had sat down next to her, the bot's bright green and golden colours had started to fade in once more.

Airachnid was wondering why the guards had taken the younglings with them. They surely wouldn't harm them, would they? She frowned at that thought. They had killed the adult bots, what if they killed the children too? No, that wouldn't make sense. Why go through the trouble of capturing them if they could've just easily planted a few bombs here and there, that would've made more sense.

She decided that they would probably not kill the younglings, but what were they doing with them then? Maybe raise them to be soldiers? Or did they need more workers in the mines perhaps? Whatever they did, Airachnid didn't like it.

„A-Airachnid..?" Came Airaneae's quiet, frightened voice suddenly and the purple femme looked down at her sister's tear-stained face.

„Are they gonna take us away too?" She whimpered, burrying her face in her sister's side. Airachnid felt her spark break at how scared the younger bot sounded.

„No, they won't." Airachnid said and held her sister tighter. „I promise they won't take us." She added after a few moments of silent sobs. Airachid could've never known that she couldn't hold the promise she just made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys, i hope you like this chapter. I would really like to know what you think of what i've written so far.
> 
> Buh-bye! :D
> 
> P.S: Just to remind you again, the part where Airaneae turns grey (wich is the colour their frame turns when cybertronians die), she didn't die. She just changed colours (an ability i thought was interesting). :D


	4. Things go downhill

During the next few days Airachnid and Airaneae were forced to watch as more and more younglings and sparklings were taken away from their families. In this time, the two femmes never dared to go down onto the streets, instead opting to stay as far away as they possibly could.

There was only one major problem wich they couldn't ignore any longer. They had run out of energon yesterday and were desperately looking for some while also avoiding the guards roaming the streets. It was rare to see a child freely walking upon the streets since the guards had began to capture them a few days prior.

Airachnid peeked out from inside a mostly wrecked building, only the wall she and her sister hid behind still standing. The purple femme narrowed her optics and watched the streets before finally, after what seemed like hours, proclaiming that it was safe enough to abandon their cover. She grabbed her sister's servo firmly and dashed away from the building, swiftly moving between the bots occupying Kaon's streets.

They kept their optics fixated on their target about 50 feet away from them. It was a relatively young bot, wich was a quite surprising sight considering what occured in the past few days. However, that was not why they were after the bot. He had two energon cubes in his arms, wich he tried to hide in a futile attempt by hunching over a bit, trying to cover them with his frame.

Airachnid turned to look at her sister. „We need to split up." She whispered to the younger bot. Airaneae's optics widened. „W-What?! But what if-!" She was cut off as her sister waved a servo in the air to silence her. „Don't worry." Airachnid said, „I saw the guards checking this area earlier, so they shouldn't come back for a while." The green bot frowned at that. „They shouldn't? But what if they do!" She stressed, clearly not happy with her sister's plan.

Airachnid checked for their target to make sure he didn't wander off without them noticing. They couldn't miss this opportunity. They _needed_ that energon. However, they also needed someone to look out for any guards who might be around. Even if Airachnid had told her sister that they had already checked this area, she still didn't wanted to be caught off guard. Or caught at all.

The purple femme looked back to her sister. „Listen, you are going to hide on one of the roofs to look out for any guards or soldiers while i go and get the energon, okay?" Her sister nodded. „Good." Before Airachnid could wander off, she was tightly embraced by her sister from behind.

„Be careful." Airaneae murmured. The older femme turned around and Airaneae looked up at her sister with worried optics. Airachnid smiled reassuringly and hugged her sister back before going after her target. She glanced back once and watched as her sister climbed up and perched onto the edge of a roof. After she made sure her sister had reached her destination safely she dissappeared into the crowd.

The purple spider-bot searched the crowd for her target and smiled almost predatorily when she saw him. He was nervous, optics always flicking back and forth. Airachnid hid behind larger bots and slowly but surely made her way closer to the bot and when she was finally close enough, she shot a web at his pedes to trip him, wich he did. The mech cried out as he hit the ground, the cubes almost falling from his grasp and shattering on the hard ground. Almost.

His cry had caught the attention of other bots and before they had the chance to approach the fallen mech, Airachnid was upon him, wrestling the energon cubes from his arms and once she had tucked the cubes safely under her arms, she pushed through the crowd, ascending the wall with the help of her spider-legs. She immediately looked back to make sure no one was following her. After she was sure she was alone she went to find her sister, leaving a confused bot and a startled crowd behind.

Not a minute later she found her sister hiding on one of the roofs, still gazing upon the crowd. Apparently, the younger bot hadn't seen her sister climb the building a few moments prior. Airachnid smirked and sneaked up on her sister, and with a shout of ‚Boo!' she wrapped an arm around her sibling from behind. Airaneae shrieked and struggled before she realised that her 'attacker' was only her sister. She leaned back and tried to calm her breathing as Airachnid laughed.

„N-Never do that again." Airaneae panted and narrowed her eyes as her sister only laughed harder. After a few minutes, Airachnid had calmed down and they both settled down on a roof a few blocks away, peacefully drinking their energon while listening to the traffic below.

However, the peace wouldn't last for long, apparently. A scream pierced the air and gun shots could be heard a few blocks away. Airachnid motioned for her sister to stay in place while she carefully peeked over the edge, straining to see where the commotion came from. All she could see were bots running along the sreets, scrambling to get as far away as possible from whatever had caused them to panic.

She watched as slower bots were quite literally swallowed by the oncoming mass, trampled on the ground and ceasing to move once the mass had moved on. Suddenly, she heard Airaneae gasp and whipped around, her spark beating fast in her chassis. She was ready to attack anyone who dared to came too close to them for comfort. She sighed in relief when she saw no one but them on the roof. Airaneae was also looking over the edge and had apparently seen something interesting.

Airachnid crouched down next to her sister and saw what made her sister gasp. Her eyes widened when she saw _Megatronus_ hiding around a corner, lots of armed mechs at his side. One of them she recgonized, his name was Soundwave. He was almost as famous as Megatronus and nearly as much as skilled in fight as the other gladiator. Maybe they were even equally good.

Megatronus touched the side of his helm and the two siblings saw as he spoke somthing into his comm. What he said, however, was completely lost to them as they were too far away. „Get down." Airachnid hissed and pushed the green femme down. She saw soldiers roaming the streets, sneaking from alley to alley, their guns raised. They had yet to see Megatronus and the other mechs hiding around the corner, most likely planning to ambush them.

Suddenly, Megatronus dashed from his hiding spot with such a speed even the soldiers were not prepared for. They didn't even get a chance to shoot as the gladiator and his fellow mechs shot them down, and just as quickly as they came, they ducked into another alley next to the building the two spider-bot's were perched on. „Did you see that?" Airaneae squealed almost a little too loudly. „That was Megatronus! And Soundwave, too!" the younger bot crawled to the other side oft he building and leaned over the edge, an excited grin on her face.

Airachnid's optics almost bulged out of her helm and she pulled her sister back and out of view from anyone who had might been in the alley below them. „What are you doing?!", the purple femme hissed. „You could have been seen!" Airanea blinked a few times before realising in what danger she just put herself in. They didn't know if there were still soldiers in this area and-

Airaneae's thoughts were cut off by gunshots and cries of pain a few blocks away, followed by a big explosion that the two femmes could feel the force of even from their distance. Suddenly, wave after wave of armed soldiers rushed around the corner, splitting up and searching the streets, shooting any mech who dared to try to stop them. „Get down!" Airachnid hissed just as a spray of bullets soared over their helms.

Airaneae clung to her sister and squeezed her optic's shut, her small frame already changing to a duller colour to blend in with the building, although it was in vain. The twin suns of Cybertron were shining brightly, making it hard to blend in. Her ability was more of use at night or in any dark places, like caves. However, now it was useless, even more so since she was laying next to her sister, who could be easily seen due to her bright pink and black frame.

Suddenly, they heard a roaring sound in the distance an das they looked back they could see a group of seekers flying over the city, shooting at the soldiers who began to run for cover as soon as they saw them. Some tried to shoot the fliers from the sky, but they easily avoided the fire and shot missiles at their targets. Airachnid peeked over the edge carefully and saw that the alley was now unoccupied. „Let's get down."

She had noticed some of the soldiers entering the building, mostly in groups as they brought heavy weaponry with them. They most likely intended to try and take the seekers out, although they'd probably have a hard time with that. Seekers were the fastest fliers to ever grace this planet. No one could keep up with them once they were in the air.

As soon as the soldiers stormed the roofs of several buildings, both siblings jumped over the edge and climbed down to hide in the alley. Airaneae's spark was beating furiously inside of her as she crouched down next to her sister. Every few seconds, a soldier would run past the alley they hid in, some even used it for cover a few seconds before running off once again. For a few minutes, everything was silent, the only sound they heard was gunshots in the distance, but it was too far away for them to be worried.

„Are they gone?" Airaneae whispered and curiously looked over her sister's shoulder, but didn't see anything. Airachnid narrowed her optic's and motioned for her sister to stay back as she carefully crept towards the exit of the alley. As luck would have it, as soon as she emerged from the alley, a bot ran around the corner a little bit further down the street, followed by two soldiers. She ducked back in and ran to her sister, nearly toppling her over as she scrambled to hide behind the pile of rubble that had fallen from the walls at some point during this chaos.

Both femmes flinched as they heard the bot scream in pain. Airachnid thought he was done for, but just imagine her surprise as he came limping in their alley, whimpering and crying. Her surprise was soon replaced with fear as the other two bots rounded the corner. They were snickering to each other, both having transformed one servo into a gun. Smoke billowed around the hot ends of the weapons they had and they trudgged forward slowly and menacingly as the wounded bot scrambled back further until he hit the wall and could no longer get away.

The purple femme squinted as she looked between the small gaps of the pile of rubble they were hidden behind and inspected the two soldiers. Maybe she didn't pay enough attention before, but she noticed that these two bots wore an emblem on both of their chassis's. She recognized it as the Autobot's symbol and immediately her fear turned to anger. _Autobots. Of course._ They lived in the city's center and served the council. The one's who made bots like her and Airaneae live on the streets like mechanimals.

Airachnid prayed that they wouldn't see them, although her chances of not being noticed were slim as the armed bots got closer and closer. One of them nudged the other's side and transformed his weapon away, pulling out something from his subspace. „Hey, you know what? We haven't tried out these explosives and i wanna know what they can do. So, whaddya think?" His companion snickered and answered, "Let's eliminate this scum." He pushed a button on what looked like a bomb and threw it into the alley.

Airachnid's optic widened in horror and she dragged her sister up and tried to run away before the bomb went off. They had no luck whatsoever as the bomb exploded before they could flee and the buildings around them collapsed. Airachnid had to stop as the walls came crashing down before them and the last thing she saw was as she and her sister were buried beneath tons of rubble. After that, everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey, another chapter! Yay! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and enjoy the ones that are going to come soon. Reviews are very much appreciated and are a good motivator. :D
> 
> Edit: Corrected some spelling mistakes here and there. oof. Please tell me if you find some more, thanks in advance. :D


	5. Separated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you liked it and would like to know what you think of it. Please let me know if there are any grammatical errors in this or other chapters. Thanks. Btw, this is my longest chapter so far. :D

When Airachnid woke up, everything hurt. And it was dark. _Very_ dark. She tried to move, but found she couldn't. With a cough, she settled down in her dark prison once more, her helm spinning. Where was she? What happened? Where is-

Airaneae. _Where was her sister?!_ Her spark began pounding wildly in her chassis and she desperately tried to move. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, _something_ moved and she kept on pushing. Smaller debris bounced off of her frame and she managed to shove parts oft he wall that fell upon her off.

But she couldn't see her sibling.

She blinked and tried to clear her optics from the dust that had fallen into them while she searched for her sister. „A-Airaneae…?" She managed to croak out and winced at how scared she sounded. That, however, was the least of her worries. She couldn't see her sister in the once-alley they had been trapped in, so she began to dig around in the pile of debris once more. She _had_ to be there, surely. Probably all alone. And scared. And-

Airachnid froze as she lifted her energon coated servo and thousands of horrible images filled her mind. She called out her sister's name once more, this time louder and sounding even _more_ scared. She frantically dug around in the pile of debris, recognizing parts of the walls wich stood only a few hours before. Or was it days? Weeks? Ye-

 _Focus._ Airachnid reminded herself. Airaneae had to be here, she was sure of it. She hissed every now and then as she cut her servo or leg, although she didn't pay it much thought as she kept clawing at pieces of rubble to find what she was desperately looking for. All she found was more energon and when she lifted the next piece she gasped and her spark almost stopped.

There was a servo sticking out between the collapsed walls, it was mangled and destroyed beyond recognition. She slowly reached out with a shaking servo and lifted piece after piece, revealing more of the frame of what she hoped wasn't Airaneae. And it wasn't. The arm and helm she revealed beneath the debris were the ones of the bot who had been buried along with both siblings, the rest of him crushed by tons of rubble.

It was a small relief to know that there was still a chance her sister lived so she set out to find the younger bot once more. Hours passed and she had checked every single corner of this damned alley and the surrounding area, but her sister remained unfound. Where could she be? Maybe one of the soldiers had returned and taken her. Or maybe she had managed to free herself of their prison and was forced to flee before Airachnid had woken up.

Suddenly Airachnid noticed how _quiet_ it was. There was not a single noise to be heard, in the whole city of Kaon. The purple femme slowly left the area she had searched thoroughly and wandered on the city's emtpy streets. Everyone was gone as far as she could see. The only bots left behind were dead, lots of soldiers and even more citizens covering the streets and alleys, the energon flowing from their frames forming small rivers that disappeared in the sewers that lead into Cybertron's underground.

As she looked around the city more, she noticed that most of Kaon lay in ruins and lots of buildings were unrecognizeable. What had happened? Obviously it must have had something to do with the soldiers who were roaming the streets a few days prior. Had they known something like this would happen? Had they intenionally caused it in hopes of getting rid of the useless, poor part of Kaon's citizen? Or was it something else entirely?

The purple femme pressed a servo against her pounding helm and squeezed her optics shut. She was exhausted from having to move all this heavy debris earlier. However, she didn't want to lay down and rest somewhere. She'd much rather find her sister and leave this city. Forever. Who knows, maybe the council was still somewhere in the city's center, hiding in their towers like cowards.

Another hour passed and she stood just outside the city's outer parts, looking at the seemingly endless landscape before her and suddenly she felt smaller than ever before. Should she leave the city? Should she stay? She didn't know. It was probably better to stay, she decided, since she could scout out some abandoned buildings for energon. Were they even abandoned? Surely she couldn't be the only one left in this city.

She trudged through the outskirts of the city and found nothing but destruction. And dead frames. The spider-bot walked for another half an hour or so before she slowly came to a stop and frowned. The area the purple femme was in seemed familiar and her spark skipped a beat as she realized where exactly she was. The purple femme began to walk a particular building, or, what was left of it. Striker's home, if you could even call it that, was utterly wrecked, like most of the city.

Unlike before, she didn't start to dig around in the once home because he couldn't possibly have survived that. He had been wounded and didn't get proper medical care, so even if he had, by some miracle, survived this chaos, Airachnid wouldn't have been able to help him. She felt suddenly overwhelmed once more. She was completely and utterly alone, had lost her best friend and sis-

 _No. She's alive._ She had to be, and as long as no one could prove the opposite to her, then she would continue to believe so. She walked around aimlessly for a while longer before deciding to enter on of the buildings that were mostly in one piece, walking up to one of the apartments. Had she ever been in an apartment before? If she was, then she couldn't remember.

It was an unnatural feeling being in this room and she couldn't quite figure out why. She assumed it was because she had lived her life on the streets, but there was also something else. The spider-bot began to search the room for energon and when she found none she moved to the next room. There, she finally found some. Upon further searching, she found even _more_. Easily a dozen cubes, more than enough to last her for more than a week and easily more.

Suddenly, Airachnid felt tired. Understandibly, it was a long and exhausting day for her. She'd woken up to a destroyed city and had yet to find her sister. _Her sister._ Airachnid felt a stab of pain in her spark. The femme just now noticed how terribly she missed the younger bot. During the day she was more of in a trance, everything had just felt so surreal. But now, the force of everything that had happened hit her like a punch in the face.

She curled up on the floor, leaning against the wall in furthest, darkest corner in the room. There was a berth she could've recharged in, but she didn't want to. It just didn't sit right with her. Airaneae should be here, right next to her, but she _wasn't_. Something wet dripped from the femme's optics and she quickly wiped it away, refusing to admit that she was crying, even if she was alone. _Completely alone._

With a heavy spark, she drifted off into an uneasy recharge, hugging her knees close to her chassis if only to have _something_ to hold onto.

_A few hours before…_

Airaneae screamed as the walls around them collapsed and her sister dragged her away by the servo before she could've been crushed by a large boulder. Suddenly, Airachnid stopped and Airaneae ran into her sister's back, and then the debris fell upon them.

She woke up only a few minutes later, her helm ringing and vision blurry. It was so incredibly _loud_ everywhere. Gunshots. Screams. The occasional sound of an explosion. She shoved some debris off of her and looked around, ducking when someone passed the collapsed alley she was in. Her sister was nowhere to be seen and so she climbed down the pile and hid in a corner.

It was a miracle her legs still functioned, or that she was alive _at all._ She dashed from the alley when she thought no one was looking and ran down the street, looking for a safe place to hide. _Does a safe place even exist here? Has one ever existed at all?_ She wondered, failing to notice a soldier perching on the roof, aiming at her. Something exploded next to her and the force of it threw her to the ground. She felt the heat and instinctively curled up, tucking the legs on her back closer to her frame.

After a few seconds, the green bot dared to look up, although everything was a bit blurry. She soon found out why. She was _crying_. She sat there on the ground, crying her optics out instead of doing something. _Anything._ Anything to stop this madness. But what could she do? Airachnid would know, but she wasn't here. She was alone, completely and utterly alone. And no one was there to help her.

Suddenly, a voice broke through the chaos. It almost felt like Airaneae was dreaming. _Help._ It seemed so surreal that someone helped her besider her sister. „-you hear me? Hey!" The feminine voice shouted and someone crouched down before her. While it wasn't her sister, the spider-bot was glad she was no longer alone. Airaneae stared up at the femme with wide optics and the bot reached out with a servo, pulling her to her pedes.

The femme was red and incredibly tall, almost double as tall a Airaneae herself. And she was bulky. Heavy, red armor protected her frame, „We need to leave. _Now._ " And then she pulled the younger bot along with her. „W-What's happening? Why are they attacking us?" Airaneae asked the bulky femme who looked back to her briefly before suddenly covering the green bot's frame with her own, deflecting dozens of bullets that were aimed for them. „I'll explain late. But first, we need to get out of here before we both die."

Airaneae nodded and tightened her servo around that of her savior, trying to keep up with the larger bot. She was mostly dragged along and tripped every now and then, so at some point the older femme picked her up and sprinted towards the city's center. „Scrap." She heard the red femme mutter and suddenly she was set down onto the ground. The were hiding around a corner, the older femme transforming one of her servos into a gun to shoot a mech who had lifted his servo to shoot at them.

The large femme muttered something to herself before turning around to face Airaneae. „Look, there are guards guarding the entrance to the city's center and they'd take you to the other children if they saw you." The femme paused for a second and checked for anyone that might approach them. „The problem is, so many children in one location are a pefect target. For _anyone._ My team and i were ordered that if we found a child somewhere that we bring it back to the others."

Airaneae held her breath and waited anxiously for her to continue. „But i'm _not_ going to bring you there." The green bot released the breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding and looked at the other bot with wide, confused optics. „Why?" Was the only thing she said. „I told you already, you'd all be an easy targ-„ She was cut off by the smaller bot. „No no, i mean, why did you capture all those children in the first place?"

The bulky femme looked confused. „What? We didn't capture them, we _saved_ them. This gladiator , Megatronus, started a war and-" Once again, she was cut off by the smaller femme who looked quite shocked. „ _He_ started a war? But you were- _are_ the ones who forced us to live on the streets for all our lifes." They didn't get a chance to argue further as an explosion shook the alley walls all around them.

The larger femme turned to Airaneae with a serious expression on her face. „Listen, we need to get out of her as fast as possible. I have a ship that we can use to flee, but we somehow need to sneak you past the guards." She paused for a moment, frowned and casther optics down, then murmured, „But how do we do that?" The smaller bot blinked and gave a small smile. „Well, i may have a solution to that."

The bulky femme looked up with a questioning gaze and her mouth dropped open as the smaller femme's bright colours faded to a dull and lifeless grey. Once she overcame her shock, the red femme smirked, „I think it might be better if you matched my paintjob, don't you think?" Airaneae nodded and changed the colour of her frame yet again to match that of her companion. „Okay, i'm going to pick you up so it'll be easier for you to blend in, is that alright?" The now red spider-bot nodded and the larger femme picked her up, Keeping her close to her body with one arm as Airaneae tried to spread out her limbs as equally as possible to blend in more.

Both of them were nervous as they neared the gate wich had seperated poor and rich bots for decades. As they approached, guards raised their weapons and one of them ordered the bulky femme to state her designation. „Ember, sir." She stated in a monotone voice. The guard stared at them for what seemed like an eternity and finally, _finally_ motioned for them to pass through the gate.

Airaneae carefully opened her optics and looked around a bit and she almost gasped at what she saw. Huge skyscrapers were _everywhere_ , and while she had seem them from afar more than once in her life, being so close to them just made her feel so incredibly tiny.

As her companion carried her through the streets of the city's center, the spider-bot noticed something else, the streets were clean. There was not a single piece of trash to be found, no dried energon coating the sidewalks, or loose cables lying around from an offlined bot. And the buildings were _also_ incredibly clean, not a single spot staining the walls.

While Airaneae was busy looking at the city with awe, Ember had already carried her to their destination, a hangar with a large ship inside, massive cannons mounted on each side, the tips blackened, indicating that they had been used before. Ember set the awed spider-bot down and walked towards the ship, lifting her arm as some of the armor slid aside, typing in something on a hidden screen. The door of the ship opened with a hiss and a ramp lowered down towards the ground. „Quick, go inside before someone sees you." Ember instructed her and she turned around, looking at the bot with a frown.

„Won't you come too?" She asked, halfway up the ramp as her usual green and golden colours faded back in, and the other bot smiled in return. „Yes, but i need to get something first, you are not the only that i'm bringing away from this chaos." Airaneae felt hope flare in her spark, maybe her sister was on board. It was unlikely, but _maybe_ she was there. Airaneae trudged up the ramp and as soon as she walked through the door it shut behind her and she heard as the ramp was tucked in to wherever it was before.

Immediately she noticed two young bots staring at her from a corner of the ship, looking frightened. Airaneae stood there for a full minute, then cleared her throat and spoke. „Have you… um, have you seen my sister?" Silence. „She looks like me just… just bigger, you know? She's older than me." Finally, one of them spoke up. „We're the only ones here, well, except for you." The small voice of a mech rang out. „Ember brought us here…" The other, a femme, added. A few minutes of silence passed and Airaneae settled down against the wall opposite of the other bots. „Are you siblings? You look kinda… alike." She asked and tilted her helm, they did very much look alike, almost as if they were… „We're twins. I'm Athena and this is my brother, Vortex." The spider-bot smiled and introduced herself as well. „My name is Airaneae." Nothing more was said after that, but the awkward tension and fear was gone.

Almost an hour passed before Ember returned, peeking her helm through the door and looking at Airaneae. „Hey, um, could you help me carry something?" The spider-bot hooked her servo into a crevice of the ship's inner walls and pulled herself up, walking towards the exit. Before she could even place a pede on the ground she gasped, looking at what Ember brought with her.

There were huge piles of energon at the base of the ramp, 6 of them almost stacked as high as her. „H-How…? Why did you- _What?!"_ The femme was at a loss of words, never had she seen so much energon in one day, possibly not even in a _year._ The other femme chuckled. „Well, we're going to need all that once we leave the city." Then she added, „And possibly this planet…" The bulky femme picked up the first cubes as Airaneae stared at her as if she'd just grown two helms.

„Why would we leave Cybertron?" She seemed very confused and terrified. She had, after all, not even been outside of Kaon, so the prospect of leaving her home planet scared her, rightfully so. Ember sighed and set the cubes down, turning to face the spider-bot fully. „As you've probably noticed, war broke out in Kaon and spread onto other cities all around Cybertron. Vos, Tarn, Iacon and so on." She paused das she saw the shocked expression on the younger bot's face. „What?"

Airaneae opened her mouth, then closed it and opened it once again. „It spread onto other cities already? That's horrible!" She cast her gaze onto the ground, looking sparkbroken. „Indeed, it is." Continued Ember. „Due to the cities attacking each other with large bombs, Cybertron's core was severely damaged and will likely go out." The green femme looked up at her with wide optic's. „Do… do you mean, Cybertron will… die?" The larger femme nodded and confirmed her fear. „I'm sorry."

Time was frozen for Airaneae. Her home planet would die, and there was nothing she could do. Cybertron's spark would extinguish and slowly but surely, everything and everyone on the planet would do the same. „While Cybertron will eventually die, there _would_ still be eneough energon reserves for lots of people to live on for a few centuries. But that's not why we're leaving. Rumors have been spread that a nuclear attack has been planned on Kaon, although from whom we don't know."

The smaller femme was at a loss for words. Someone planned to destroy Kaon? „But what about all the innocents who live here?" The green femme asked. Ember shrugged. „As i said, i've heard only rumors, it could've also been completely false what i heard. But we need to leave the city anyways. Nuclear attacks might sound horrible, but you don't want to know what happens if other cities decide to come here and attack the council, where all the children reside currently. Or worse. That's why we are going to leave. Now."

Both of them started loading the energon into the ship in silence. Whenever Airaneae came onboard with arms full of energon cubes, she could see the twins, Athena and Vortex, play or just talking to each other. Almost an hour passed before they managed to load everything into the storage room of the ship and secure everythig so the cubes wouldn't shatter and spill everywhere once they took off.

The green spider-bot was exhausted after having helped Ember bring all those cubes onboard, so she let herself fall into one of the two co-pilots seats, wich were only a few feet behind the captain's seat. „Comfortable?" Ember asked, amusement lacing her voice. The sleepy bot only nodded and murmured a 'yes' before closing her optics.

She groaned in annoyance as she was shook a few seconds after and groggily optened her optics to a smiling Ember. „C'mon, we have three cabins with far more comfortable berths in there, you can have one." Ember grabbed her servo and pulled the tired femme to her pedes, leading her down a small hallway to the three cabins. One was at the end of the hallway, the captain's cabin, and the other two were on each sides. „You can choose wichever you want, really, i don't care."

The green femme looked at each cabin door, completely baffled that she was going to sleep in a room, her _own_ , at that. She turned around with tearful optics, a smile on her face. „Thank you." Ember smiled and patted her shoulder. „No problem. I'm going to catch few hours of sleep to before we depart. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to wake me, okay?" Airaneae nodded and attempted to open the door only to notice a keypad next to it. The larger femme noticed and told her the code before vanishing in the captain's cabin.

Airaneae entered her room and the door slid shut behind her, leaving her in total darkness for a few seconds before she managed to find the light switch. The room was small and simple, a berth stood on one side, a desk on the other with a lamp mounted on the wall above it. Beneath the desk were a few drawers she could've opened, but was too tired to. Instead she turned on the not so bright lamp above the desk, flicked off the main light and climbed onto the soft berth, almost immediately falling asleep.


	6. Learning new things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yay, another chapter. Hope you like it! Reviews are very much appreciated. :D

A loud _boom_ tore Airaneae from her sleep, sending her tumbling out of the berth she had just been sleeping in. A little dazed from the fall, it took the green femme a minute to stand without falling over. She ran to the door of her cabin, opening it just to see Ember rush past towards the bridge, slamming herself in the captain's seat while starting the engine of the ship.

A warning sign popped up on one of the screens before the red femme and she cursed. „We're under attack!" The ship wobbled and Airaneae had nothing to hold onto, so she fell onto the floor once more. She heard a wail pierce the air and saw Athena and Vortex, hiding under a table, wich was luckily connected to the floor, or else it would be tumbling about, hitting bots onboard.

She crawled forward until she was next to the siblings, curling her spider-legs around them to comfort them. „Hold on tight, we're leaving the hangar!" Came a shout from the bridge and the green femme braced herself against table and wall, holding Athena and Vortex tightly. Usually, in situations like these, Airachnid would be the one to comfort Airaneae, since the green feeme would be the one to panick. However, now that even _younger_ children were here, the spider-bot felt the need to protect them.

Another explosion rocked the ship, and Airaneae heard the twins cry out in fear. She squeezed her optics shut, praying that they'd survive whatever they had gotten into. She yelped as the ship was almost flying vertical, and although she had no problem whatsoever holding up _herself,_ with two panicking twins holding onto her legs kicking and screaming, things were a bit more difficult.

She felt their little servos start to slip and she was about to loose the grip on the table herself just as the ship flew horizontal once again. She heard the thud of the twins dropping onto the floor and the green femme looked behind her to make sure they were okay. After she was sure they were fine the femme walked over to Ember, standing behind her seat, her legs shaking slightly. „What happened?"

Ember looked back at her with a serious expression. „The hangar was attacked. We barely got out." Airaneae's optics widened. The hangar was in Kaon's center, basically one of the most protected parts of the city. „The hangar was utterly destroyed, and several ships have been blown up." The red femme continued. How did the rest of the city look then? What happened to Airachnid?

„What about the rest of the city?" She asked, choking back the tears that threatened to spill out of her optics. Airachnid was still there, probably looking for her. Or maybe she was… ? She shook her head, refusing to let her thoughts go there. „I don't really know what happened to the rest of it, but from what i saw when we left the hangar, it didn't look good."

Airaneae felt a tear slip down her cheek and she took a few steps back, sitting down in the co-pilots seat. The green femme thought about the last few days, and what happened. She had been with her sister not even a day ago and now she was in a spaceship, flying to Primus-knows where. It wasn't even that bad, it just would've been much better with her sister at her side.

The spider-bot heard Ember curse under her breath, looking at the screen before her. Airaneae didn't know what was written on the screen, as she had never been taught to read. „We need to land." The red femme proclaimed as she angled the ship's steering wheel downwards to land. As soon as they landed, the red femme stood and stepped to the door of the ship, wich opened and a ramp descended to the ground, wich Ember used as soon as it was in place.

Airaneae followed the older femme cautiously, squinting her optics as the bright light from outside shone on her face. After a few seconds, her optics adjusted to the brightness and she was able to walk without a servo shielding her face. The green spider-bot came to a stop next to Ember and looked at the ship with a gasp.

One of the ship's wings was damaged, metal torn from it's place. You could see some sparking wires and more of the wing's structure. The metal around the gaping hole was blackened and some looked like it was still hot. There was more minor damage all around the ship. Probably nothing to worry about, but this needed to be fixed, surely.

Ember frowned and crossed her arms. „They almost got one of our turbines." She stated, clearly unhappy with the situation. „We need to fix it before we leave the ground again, or else it could explode." She walked towards the ship, armor at the palm of her servos and below her knees folding away, flat pieces of metal forming in both places. Airaneae frowned in confusion as, suddenly, Ember placed her servos on the ship's flat surface, and pulled herself up.

For a moment, the green femme was utterly confused as the other femme climbed higher with ease, but she quickly figured out what was going on. _Magnets._ She was using magnets! The spider-bot smiled and watched as the bulky femme climbed near the major damage of the ship. The red bot inspected the hole near the engine, flinching back as sparks flew out of it. With a concentrated expression, she carefully reached into the hole with both servos, her knees placed firmly against the metal around it to keep her steady.

After a moment, the red femme retracted her servo with a pleased look on her face. „What did you do?" Airaneae asked curiously, watching as Ember climbed down the ship's wall, the magnets vanishing beneath her usual red armor once more. „I cut off the excess to the main power. Can't explode now." She grinned. „It's been a while since i got to tinker on a ship." A pause, then. „If i'm being honest, for a moment i thought i cut the wrong wire…"

Airaneae's optics widened at that, but before she got to say anything, Ember vanished inside her ship. She hurried to follow the bulky femme and just managed to run through the entrance as the red femme entered her quarters. She waited in the main area, the center of the ship. At the very front was the control center, behind that the main area, wich had two tables on each side, with a bench also connected to each side. Next was a small hallway that lead to the three cabin's.

After a few minutes, she heard the door of Ember's quarters open and looked up, watching as the femme carried a box and set it down on one of the table in the main area. She set it down and opened it, pulling out what looked like a weapon, inspecting it critically. „Airaneae, can you come over here, please?" The red femme asked. The spider-bot walked over slowly, optics fixated on the weapon.

Ember looked up. „Listen, i don't have the materials to repair the ship right now, that means we need to go look for metal resistant enough to withstand the forces of outer space." The older bot held out the weapon to Airaneae. „Wich is why i need you to come with me, and you need to be able to protect yourself." The green spider-bot stared at her for a moment, then at the weapon and back again. „I can't do this." The younger femme said, and backed up a bit.

The red femme sighed. „It'll be much faster with two bots and i could really use some help." Airaneae shook her helm and said. „No, no… I mean, i don't know how to shoot." Ember looked slightly surprised, as if expecting her to argue more. „So, you have no problem with going out there with me at all?" The green femme shook her head once more. „Huh… you're braver than some mechs i got to train." Airaneae looked surprised and slightly proud of herself at this. „Really?" Ember chuckled.

The red femme held the weapon out to Airaneae once more, who begrudgingly took it with shaking servos. The larger femme smiled. „C'mon, follow me." Both bots went outside again, a little bit further away from the ship, near a random metal formation. „I'm assuming that you're going to teach me how to shoot?" The red femme nodded, to wich the other groaned in frustration.

The spider-bot glanced at the weapon with a puzzled gaze, looking at Ember for help. The bulky femme chuckled and took the weapon from her servos, activating it by pressing Primus-knows-what. Airaneae now held the activated weapon, managing to find the handle and hold it by that. „Pull the trigger." The younger femme stared at her as if she'd grown two helms. Ember pointed to the trigger of the blaster. „There." Airaneae aimed the weapon towards the metal formation about 50 feet away from them and pulled the trigger.

_Boom._

She flinched at the loud sound as it hit the construction, metal flying everywhere. The green spider-bot had taken a few steps back, almost dropping the blaster as she watched metal melt, dripping to the ground. Her mouth was hanging open as she turned to look at Ember, who looked at the smaller femme with a sheepish expression. „Maybe i shouldn't have turned it up to maximum efficiency."

Her statement was followed by an disbelieving shout of „What?!" as Ember laughed loudly. After the red femme had calmed down, she showed the now frowning Spider-bot how to hold the blaster more steady. After that, she attepmted to show the younger femme how to aim, wich was quite difficult. Noting that Airaneae always took a step back to balance herself out after a shot, she showed the femme a proper, more stable stance.

After about an hour, the spider-bot could now hold the weapon properly and shoot without falling over. However, she still needed to train to actually _hit_ her target, wich was currenty some metal sticking out noticeably from the rest of the metal formation. „C'mon, that's enough for today. Tomorrow, we'll go look for some materials to repair my ship." Ember said and held out a servo, waiting for Airaneae to give back the blaster.

Airaneae looked at her and smiled. She turned off the blaster before returning it to it's rightful owner. Together, they walked back to the ship, finding that Vortex and Athena were both asleep on one of the benches in the main hall. Ember shook her helm with an amused look on her face, walking towards the sleeping twins and picking them up in her arms carefully. Airaneae watched as the red femme brought the siblings to their shared cabin and smiled.

„Well, i don't know about you, but i'm gonna sleep now. It'll take us at least two days to get to Vos." Ember said as she walked out oft he twin's room. „We're going to Vos?" Airaneae asked, surprised. She didn't even realize how far they were from her home city. „Yes, so you should get some rest." The other femme said and yawned, vanishing in her quarters, the door sliding shut behind her.

The green femme stood in the main hall for quite some time after Ember was gone. She sat down in one of the co-pilots seats and watched the stars through the large front window of the ship. Airaneae sighed, wishing for the thousandth time that her sister was here. The green spider-bot wondered if her sister was even alive. „She has to be…" The young femme murmured.

After a few more minutes, she decided that it was time for her to go get some rest. She was, after all, starting her journey to Vos tomorrow. That was at least something she looked forward to. The green femme had never been anywhere beside her home city and thus going to Vos was a big event for her. She trudged inside her quarters and flicked off the light, settling down in her berth once more, looking out the small circular window in her cabin, watching the stars twinkle outside before sleep claimed her.

A/N: Yay, another chapter. Hope you like it! Reviews are very much appreciated. :D


	7. Not so alone

It was weird waking up alone, Airachnid thought. Usually, she'd be busy waking her sister, who would groan and plead for five more minutes. But her sibling wasn't here, leaving the older femme completely alone. She sighed and looked up, staring at the ceiling of the apartment she had spent the night in. What was she supposed to do, now that her sister was gone? She had no one to talk to or share breakfast with.

Speaking of breakfast…

Airachnid took one of the cubes she'd discovered in the abandonent room and took a sip of it, a surprised look on her face. It tasted better than she expected. Much better. She swirled it around a little, watching the glowing liquid as it rised dangerously close to the cube's edge. She stopped after a few more seconds and drank half of it before setting it back to the others she found.

With a tired sigh, she stood up and took a look around the room she was in. It was obviously a berthroom, she discovered that much yesterday. She noticed a few datapads that were strewn across the room. The purple femme picked one up and noticed a few cracks in the frame. The spider-bot pressed a few buttons on the side and suddenly, a blue screen flickered to life. Symbols filled the screen wich she couldn't understand, after all, she had never been taught to read.

The femme raised her servo and tapped at the holo-screen, more symbols filling the screen. More symbols she couldn't understand. Setting the datapad on the berth, the purple spider-bot walked to what looked like a living area, carefully stepping over other possesions of the previous owner. Whoever lived here must've been in a rush to get away, Airachnid thought with a frown. Of course they would, who would stay here when-

Her thoughts were interrupted as a window shattered in the berthroom and a dozen lasers pierced the wall where she stood just a few minutes ago. Immediately, the spider-bot ducked down and crawled further away from that room, afraid someone might have found her. Sher heard an angry shout outside, followed by cursing and even more shooting.

Her spark beat fast in her chassis and she dared to peek around the wall she had hidden behind. The voices echoed around the not-quite empty streets of the large city. The purple femme crept over to the window and cautiously looked through the glass seperating her and whoever was out there. At first she didn't see anyone, but then she saw something moving behind a mountain of rubble. The bot looked quite young and at first she thought he was being the one followed when she saw the insignia on his chestplates.

She growled. He was an Autobot. Those disgustingly greedy little fraggers who apparently had an habit of picking one weaker bots than themselves. Oh how much she wished to just rip out his spark and shove it down his throat for what they had done. The purple femme noticed something smaller and blue behind the bulky red bot. A femme climbed up the mountain of debris while the red mech made sure no-one could sneak up on them.

After a few minutes, they continued down the street while Airachnid glared at their backs. The femme trudged towards the berthroom and before she could stop herself, she climbed out of the broken window, stabbing all six of her spider-legs into the wall as she thought about what happened in the past few days. What happened to all those younglings and sparklings who were torn from their family. What happened because of the Autobots.

Clenching her servos into fists, the femme growled once again and launched herself onto the roof of a smaller building wich stood next to the one she'd slept in. Silently, the angry femme jumped from building to building until she finally spotted them cornering a wounded bot. She realized it was the bot they'd been chasing earlier and she hissed, clenching her fists even harder.

„Surrender or else we'll have to shoot you." The red bot called out in a deep voice and his female companion glared at their target. The wounded mech threw whatever he could get his servos on at them but they easily dodged the flying projectiles. „I will never surrender! Not until every single last one of you have payed for what you've done!" The mech roared, clutching the leaking wound on his leg. The blue femme scoffed and muttered something to the red mech, to wich he shook his head.

Aiming her blasters at the wounded mech, the femme stepped a little bit closer and spoke in a louder and more unfriendly tone. „This is your last chance, Decepticon. Give up or we're going to kill you." She glared at the mech and in return, the mech just growled and spat in her direction. „Then kill me. But remember my words, Megatron will personally tear your sparks out of your chest's for what you and your excuse of a Prime have done to Cybertron!"

Those were his last words as the femme charged at him with a furious cry, kicking him tot he ground before retracting her blasters and instead using blades on her forearms to slice the mech's helm off. His dead and grey frame slumped forward, energon spilling from his exposed wires. The femme's red companion walked up to her and inspected the dead frame, then turned to look at the fuming femme. „Was that really neccesary? He still could've had important information on him. Maybe he knew the location of their warship."

The femme whipped around and hissed at him, „You know i had to do it, Tailgate! Did you even hear what he said about Optimus?! He joined the Decepticons and dares to speak against him!" The red mech blinked and motioned with his servos for her to calm down. „You're right, you're right. But he still could've been useful to us, even if he's just a Decepticon, okay? I know you're angry, Arcee, but our orders were to capture any surviving 'Cons, not kill them."

Crossing her arms, the femme frowned but semmed to agree with her companion's logic. The red mech raised his servo to his helm and murmured something before the two of them continued down the street.

Airachnid watched them leave and thought about going back for a few seconds because the Autobots were obviously armed, but decided against it. She'd follow them and look for an opportunity to harm them, maybe she'd be lucky enough to find something heavy up here enough to squash them.

As she continued to follow them, the femme heard something in the distance. Stopping to crouch low enough not to be seen, she strained to hear the sound. As it got closer, the spider-bot realized it was the sound of engines. Seekers. Immediately her mind was thrown back to just a day ago, when she and her sister had heard those same engines before they were separated and beforeshewaskill-

A missile was launched into the side of the building and Airachnid was thrown onto her back, watching as several jets soared overhead. The femme's spark was pounding inside her wildly and it alsmost felt as if it was going to tear her chassis open at any moment. She gasped for air and scrambled to the middle of the roof as the wall collapsed on one side. Thinking the worst was over, Airachnid started to get up just as she felt the building tip to one side.

Once again, she lost her balance, but this time there was no floor to fall onto. This time there was nothing. Nothing she could do. Nothing to catch her.

Preparing for the worst, the femme shut her optics and shielded her face with her arms as she collided with the ground. Immediately, pain shot up her leg and she felt a hot trickle of energon drip down her leg as she was buried beneath tons and tons of metal. Again.

Black dots clouded her vision. Or was it the debris cutting off the light? She didn't know. Her helm pounded and everything suddenly felt so far away… She didn't even feel the pain in her leg anymore. She wasn't able to stay conscious any longer and slowly shut her optics, the cold darkness embracing her.


End file.
